0418NOTErosBee_CranachBorghese

Lucas Cranach the Elder, "Cupid Complaining to Venus", ca 1530, London National Gallery, inv. no. 6344.

Venus points to the moralizing moment and the painter applies the instructive caption (extreme upper right): DUM PUER ALVEOLO FURATUR MELLA CUPIDO/ FURANTI DIGITUM CUSPITE FIXIT APIS/ SIC ECIAM NOBIS BREVIS EST PERITURA VOLUPTAS/ QUAE PETIMUS TRISTI MIXTA DOLORE NOCET (the Latin's not great: When the boy Cupid stole honey from a hive, a bee stuck his finger with its stinger. So, too, for us the passing pleasure we seek mingles with sad regret and makes us hurt.)

The sentiment from which this vignette is derived relates to an idyll once attributed to the Hellenistic poet Theocritus (now considered suprious). The wounded child of Aphrodite learns to appreciate the pain inflicted with his arrows on humans.